Dr Robin Roop, a consultant and vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine for Wales, said: “Numbers are rising but patients coming to emergency departments are also having to have more types of treatments and they stay a lot longer, hence our four hour performance figures are down.”

The Welsh Government’s target is that no more than 5% of those attending AE wait for more than four hours and nobody should spend longer than 12 hours.

Dr Roop said he had heard about cases of patients waiting in south Wales as long as 80 hours and in north Wales for more than 12 hours.

“Across the entire the country, we have been having this pressure annually, not just in winter but in the summer,” he said.

“While it might seem like one weekend is worse than others, that’s a natural variation. Across all sites in north and south Wales, we have patients waiting for prolonged periods, week in, week out.”

He said there was provision for more beds but they were also looking for more staff and not just relying on agency nurses.

“It’s worrying because as a college we’ve been advocating expansion in staffing numbers and extra beds in the system.

“Patients are worried… but they will be given expert care to the best of the ability of the staff there, their care will not be compromised.”

The Welsh Government said AE performance – at an all Wales level – has been better each month since April compared to last year.

Although there are significant variations in performance hospitals across Wales.

The chart above shows how difficult it has been to meet the target.

Image caption
About 6% of patients attending AE at Morriston Hospital in Swansea wait more than 12 hours

Morriston Hospital in Swansea has had periods where nearly half of patients arriving at AE have been waiting longer than the four hour target.

Log-jams occur when hospital wards become full, often because of delays in discharging older patients.

Last week, it introduced the Get Up And Go scheme for elderly patients involving therapists, which looks to get them more mobile and independent while they are in hospital.

Medical care ward manager Claire Morris said: “The initiative is to get patients out of bed, on their feet and get them home quicker.”

She said it was not only better for the flow of patients but better for patients themselves.

It has already succeeded in getting five elderly patients back into their own or a family home rather than having to wait for a nursing home placement.

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “Winter is challenging period for all health services in the UK. Health boards, local authorities and the ambulance service here have all been working hard to develop integrated plans to ensure they are ready for winter.”